Williams: Officiating turned the tide against us

Charlie Smith High head coach Eugene Williams says he felt aggrieved with the way the officiating turned the tide in his team's 3-0 loss to Kingston College (KC) in their ISSA/Manning Cup Group Two quarter-final opener at Stadium East on Saturday.

Christopher Pearson put KC into the lead in the 10th minute, while second-half strikes from Ronardo Burgher (84th) and Demario McCarthy (88th) wrapped up the points for the many-time champions.

While acknowledging that KC executed better on the day, Williams was more perturbed by the two calls which he felt changed their momentum for the worst. Williams felt that Pearson's curling opener should not have stood because of an alleged handball in the build-up and was particularly miffed about the sending off of Dacquan Green for allegedly landing an elbow into a KC player.

"Two decisions that went against us and that cost us the game. We had the better run of play during the first 15 minutes of the game until that decision which let them score. But you have to give KC credit," Williams said. "They came out and they did what they had to do. And we just have to just come again."

It was a frustrating afternoon for Williams, which saw him decline a post-game TV interview to address the matter.

Charlie Smith had the better of the chances in the opening minutes of the game, with KC managing to avoid a defence disaster that almost saw Charlie Smith's Andre Gibbs fire them into the lead. Tyreek Crossman of Charlie Smith had a free kick slam off the crossbar shortly afterwards.

However, Williams said that he has belief in his squad and their ability to turn around their fortunes and fight for a semi-final spot given the circumstances

"It is the first time that I have ever seen my players lose a game and they were so emotional. Never before. Right now they said that they don't even want to break camp," Williams said. "You have to give them credit. They have nothing to be ashamed about. We know what my team is capable of. We just have to brush off ourselves and come again. Wednesday coming is a must win."

Charlie Smith will face Excelsior in their second quarter-final group game on Wednesday at Stadium East.